


Demons Run

by mountain_born



Series: The Marvelous Tale of an Agent, an Archer, and an Assassin [43]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), marvel movies
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Doctor Who/Avengers Crossover Fusion, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 03:23:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11728464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mountain_born/pseuds/mountain_born
Summary: The Avengers are called upon to travel through Time and Space to a remote outpost known as Demons Run to help rescue Amy Pond and her child from the Silence and the Academy of the Question.  If only the Universe were ever that straightforward.  (Aka the events ofA Good Man Goes to Warget aMarvelous Taletwist.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As always, first and foremost, thanks go out to my amazing beta and partner in crime, **like-a-raven**. Not only does she make sure my final product is clean and consistent, her brainstorming help is invaluable and she doesn’t let me half-ass _anything_. 
> 
> So, we have finally arrived at Demons Run. Much like the events of the Avengers movie, I feel like I’ve been writing toward this part of River’s story for ages. I can’t quite believe we’re actually here. The storyline for this fic is adapted from the _Doctor Who_ episode entitled _A Good Man Goes to War_ and borrows a fair amount of dialogue from it. But there’s a lot that’s new and original as well, and it all has a _Marvelous Tale_ twist.
> 
> This fic is broken into four chapters, with one chapter going up per day. Happy reading!

_**“Demons run when a good man goes to war.”** _

_September 2012_  
 _Administration Center, SHIELD Headquarters_  
 _1 Hour After the Battle of Demons Run_

Clint was the first one to step out of the TARDIS.

There was never any predicting where the Doctor would choose to land when he visited SHIELD HQ. He usually tried to aim for an out-of-the-way spot, per his casual agreement with Fury. Fury had developed a certain sense of humor about the Doctor and his companions randomly turning up, more than likely stemming from the fact that there was very little Fury could do to stop it. As long as they didn’t attract too much attention when they came and went, Fury let it slide.

Clint immediately recognized his surroundings: the south elevator lobby on the third floor of the Administration Center. They were just outside of the high-security-level executive offices. Dead ahead, through two partitions of bullet-proof glass, Clint could see Agent Nadine Washington. She gave him a look that said, loud-and-clear, _Seriously? I do not get paid enough for this_ as she laid her sidearm down on her desk and reached for her phone.

Clint looked back through the open door of the TARDIS. The Doctor had already returned most of his army to their own times and places. Only the Avengers were left. Phil, Steve, Tony, Bruce, and Thor were scattered around the lower deck. The Doctor stood at the control console. He’d already powered down the TARDIS and was watching Amy and Rory, huddled together on the sofa on the upper deck.

Amy and Rory. Clint had barely been able to look at them since the end of the battle. Yeah, he’d known going in how Demons Run was going to play out. River hadn’t known the details of the story, but she herself was living proof of how it had to end.

Clint had known that, but it still hadn’t prepared him for how hard it would be to watch. Amy and Rory were devastated. 

_No shit. They just lost their baby. How the fuck would you feel, Barton?_

Clint turned back to see Fury and River hurrying up the short corridor behind Nadine’s desk, coming from the Director’s office. River visibly sagged with relief when she saw Clint. 

Hard to believe that everything had been fine just five hours ago.

*****

_5 Hours Earlier_  
 _Administration Center, SHIELD Headquarters_  
 _Lower Levels_

“So, then I said that as long as we have all of these new transfers moving onto the base, we might as well go ahead and start on the water heater upgrades this year instead of next year.” Maintenance Technician Carrie Pickens checked the readouts for the last set of relays and nodded in satisfaction. “These are good. We can go on to the next one.”

“Yeah, I hear you,” her colleague, Brian Murphy, replied as they wheeled their work cart up to the next junction box. “Agents get cranky when the locker room showers aren’t hot.”

They were halfway through the relays when Murphy muttered, “What the hell?” When Pickens glanced at him, he nodded at something over her shoulder. “It looks like. . .is that one of Thor’s people?”

Pickens turned and her eyes widened. There was a man walking—no, _marching_ —up the hall from the boiler room. He was tall and had a fierce look on his face. He wore leather armor and a red cloak, and a large sword hung at his side. _I hope to God that’s one of Thor’s people,_ she thought. The Asgardian prince, along with the other Avengers, had been on the base for the last several weeks. Pickens hadn’t heard anything about Thor having an entourage, but this guy sure looked the part.

The man marched right up to Pickens and Murphy. “Excuse me. Could you direct me to the lifts, please?” he asked. 

Pickens and Murphy pointed down the hall toward the elevators. 

“Thanks,” the man said politely, and went on his way.

“We should call Security,” Pickens said.

“Oh, yeah.”

*****

Rory stood at attention, his hand on the hilt of his sword, as the lift carried him to the upper levels of the Administration Center.

The TARDIS had landed in the boiler room, which meant that River and Clint and Phil were sure to be somewhere in the building. For reasons that the Doctor had never quite worked out, the TARDIS was very good at homing in on those three. Rory knew he’d find them if he wandered long enough. Actually, what was more likely to happen was that he’d be detained by SHIELD Security, and _they’d_ call Clint and River. The end result would be the same.

Rory took a deep breath and a bit of the horrible feeling he’d been living with for the last six weeks dropped away. He wished they’d come to SHIELD earlier. The soldiers that he and the Doctor had been gathering were formidable to say the least, and Rory had every confidence in them. But River and Clint and Phil were his friends. They were Amy’s friends. Rory knew they would do whatever it took to help them.

The lift came to a stop on the third floor. The doors slid open, and the Security calls must have worked their way up the chain in record time, because Nick Fury was waiting there to meet him. He arched his eyebrow at Rory as he stepped out of the lift.

“Director,” Rory said.

“Centurion,” Fury replied. He looked Rory up and down. “I think you’re in violation of our _under the radar_ agreement.”

“I’m here on business,” Rory said. “I need the Avengers.”

“Do you, now?”

Rory’s mouth tightened. “Amy’s been taken. There’s this group, a cult of some kind. They’re called the Silence. . .”

He had lost track of the number of times he’d told this story over the past few weeks. Rory had it down pat by now—all the pertinent information laid out in a handful of short sentences. But for all that, his voice still caught on the word _baby._ Rory still hadn’t quite wrapped his mind around that. He was a father. He had been a father for weeks. He had a daughter he’d never set eyes on.

That would change very soon.

“We’re raising an army,” Rory finished. “The Doctor’s found their base, and we’re going to get them back. I’m here for the Avengers. It’s their sort of job, isn’t it?”

Taking a challenging tone with Nick Fury was not, perhaps, the wisest course of action. Still, Fury had heard him out and now just inclined his head slightly. 

“Well, then. I guess you’d better come with me.”

*****

River was starting to firmly believe that Phil Coulson was capable of performing minor miracles.

He’d always had that aura about him, right from the very beginning. Clint may have made the call to bring River Song, one of SHIELD’s priority targets, in alive, but Phil was the one who’d gone to the mat with Fury and convinced SHIELD to keep her. His reputation for being “the quiet agent who got shit done” was legend. He’d pulled off a near-impossible extraction from Liverpool and waltzed off with an 084 right under the nose of UNIT. He’d recruited the best marksman in SHIELD’s history and, when Hawkeye had suffered an injury that all but destroyed his hearing, Phil had pushed for a solution that let him rejoin the roster of active field agents. Most recently, he’d survived being stabbed through the chest by an alien with delusions of kinghood. 

He was probably the only person alive who could have gotten all six of the Avengers to agree to what amounted to boot camp.

“I’ve reviewed the reports from the St. Mark’s Hospital mission,” Phil had said when he’d first called them together, a couple of days after Stark’s party. “You all did an exceptional job under adverse circumstances, but one thing did jump out at me. There were points where it seemed that team communication broke down.” 

Phil’s solution had been a course of intensive team training and bonding time. They were now in their final week, and River was more than a little amazed at how well Phil’s plan had worked. 

The Avengers were sitting around a table in the private dining room in Director Fury’s office suite, having lunch. Fury had excused himself a few minutes ago, quietly summoned by a text on his phone. Possibly, River thought, the Director needed a bit of a break from his new team. Mealtimes could be rather boisterous when all the Avengers were together. Tony and Thor were the primary instigators, joking and telling stories and prodding the others to do the same. They’d even got Bruce to spill about a few exploits.

River glanced toward Phil at the head of the table. He’d been pretty quiet throughout lunch, but when he caught River’s eye, he smiled. River knew that he was enjoying this, just watching the Avengers laughing and talking. 

Behind her, River heard the dining room door open and she saw Phil’s smile fade, replaced by wary curiosity. River turned as conversation around the table petered out.

Fury was back, but he hadn’t returned alone. Rory was with him.

No, not Rory. The Last Centurion. 

River reached for Clint’s hand under the table. 

“Avengers,” Fury said. “I hate to interrupt, but it seems that you’re needed.”

*****

_Meanwhile, in the 52nd Century_  
 _Asteroid Outpost 3127.9, aka Demons Run_

“I wish I could tell you that you’ll be loved. That you’ll be safe and cared for and protected. But this isn’t the time for lies. What you are going to be, Melody, is very, very brave.”

Melody blinked up at Amy with sleepy blue eyes. The baby made a soft, contented sound as Amy gently stroked her cheek. She couldn’t get over how beautiful this tiny person was, with her wispy red hair, little bowed lips, and absurdly long fingers, and there was definitely something of Rory about her eyes. 

Amy also couldn’t get over how much she loved her when only weeks ago she hadn’t even known she was coming. One moment Amy had been (she’d thought) on the TARDIS with Rory and the Doctor. The next moment she’d woken up in this _place_ while contractions rolled through her body. 

Amy cradled her daughter a little closer and continued her story, one that she had told to Melody every day since her birth.

“But not as brave as they all have to be. Because there’s someone coming. I don’t know where he is, or what he’s doing, but trust me. He’s on his way. There’s a man who’s never going to let us down. And not even an army can get in the way.”

Amy looked out the large window, watching the movements of the soldiers in the huge chamber one story down. This room she was kept in, which her captors perversely referred to as _the nursery,_ didn’t have a clock, but Amy had learned to keep time by observing the soldiers’ shifts. It was a spy trick. River had taught it to her.

It was after lunch and the shifts were starting to change. That meant they’d be coming for Melody soon. Madame Kovarian and her lackey, Dr. Weatherby, came and took Melody away every day at the same time. They said it was for medical tests, but they’d never tell Amy what they were testing for and they’d be gone for hours. Amy always spent those hours in dread that they might not bring her back.

Amy swallowed hard and kept going. 

“He’s the last of his kind. He looks young but he’s lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. And wherever they take you, Melody, however scared you are, I promise you, you will never be alone. Because this man is your father. He has a name, but the people of our world know him better as the Last Centurion.”

_Rory, where are you? I know you’re out there. I know you’re coming for us. But please hurry._

Amy turned away from the window. She leveled a glare at the figure in the far corner of the nursery. She’d earned her own personal prison guard here. 

“And when he comes,” she said, addressing her guard now, “God help every last one of you.”

Her guard didn’t respond. He never did. 

Amy didn’t know what to make of the man. He wasn’t one of the rank and file soldiers, that was for certain. The others were Anglican Marines, the same outfit that they’d run into on Alfava Metraxis during their little adventure with the Weeping Angels on the _Byzantium._ They were about as Amy remembered them; clean-cut, dressed in Army green, tossing out salutes and _sirs_ and _ma’ams_ and random, off-hand religiosity. 

By contrast, this man was almost unkempt. He had an untidy shock of black hair and he wore a plain black uniform cut in such a way to show that his entire left arm was made of metal. He didn’t even seem to have a rank; on the few occasions Amy’d heard Madame Kovarian address him directly, she just called him _James._

He was always there in the nursery, it felt like, just silently keeping watch. He never talked, at least not in Amy’s hearing. She’d goaded him more than once, trying to get him to say something, with no success.

He was creepy, that was all. 

Amy tensed as she heard footsteps approaching in the corridor outside and the light over the door switched from red to green. She’d give her kidnappers this: they were punctual. 

“I’ll be right here when you get back, love,” Amy whispered to Melody as the door opened and Madame Kovarian stepped inside.

*****

James kept a close eye on Amy as Madame Kovarian took the infant out of her stiff arms. It had been weeks since Amy had actively resisted this process, but that was no reason for a lapse in vigilance. Amy had become violent the first few times her baby was removed for testing. Dr. Weatherby’s right eye and nose were only now returning to their normal color.

James had felt a certain sense of satisfaction over Dr. Weatherby’s smashed nose and black eye, though he wasn’t exactly sure why. Dr. Weatherby and Madame Kovarian had always been good to him. The Silence and the Academy had been good to him. They’d found him in the snow, near death, his arm mangled past saving, abandoned by his own people. They’d taken him in and saved him. 

His memories of the whole incident were very vague, but Madame Kovarian had told him the story.

Once Madame Kovarian and Dr. Weatherby had left with the baby, Amy retreated to her bunk and silence descended on the nursery for over an hour before someone buzzed at the door requesting admittance. 

The Anglican Marine at the door visibly gulped when she saw James. She was a private, quite young, with a long braid of dark hair. She was holding something carefully in one hand—a round piece of heavy green silk. The edges were cut and hemmed in a wave pattern, creating points like a star or a snowflake. Beads hung from the points and incomprehensible letters, embroidered in gold thread, ran across the middle.

“Hello, sir,” she said. “I’m Private Bucket. Lorna Bucket. I was just wondering if I could. . .”

James listened while Private Bucket stammered out her request. He considered. It was irregular. He wasn’t sure Madame Kovarian would approve. At the same time, he didn’t see any harm in it. It wouldn’t compromise security. So, after a long moment of silence during which Private Bucket began to shift nervously, James stood aside and nodded for her to come in.

Amy had gotten up from her bunk, watching Private Bucket’s admittance warily. The wariness changed to bemusement when the other woman offered her the piece of embroidered green silk.

“This is for you,” Private Bucket explained. “It’s a custom in the Gamma Forest, where I’m from. It’s your child’s name in the language of my people. It’s a prayer leaf and we believe, if you keep this with you, your child will always come home to you.”

Amy accepted the gift rather coolly. Still, once Private Bucket had left and Amy had gone back to pointedly ignoring James (this time pacing in front of the large window) he noticed that she kept the leaf clutched tightly in her hand.

_This is wrong._

James shook his head slightly at the sudden, intrusive voice in the back of his mind. 

_This is wrong, Bucky. We should help her._

That voice. James didn’t know who it belonged to any more than he knew who _Bucky_ was supposed to be. It came and went intermittently. If it became enough of a distraction, Madame Kovarian would send him to Dr. Weatherby’s lab to be reset. That usually quieted it for a time.

The Doctor would be descending on them any day, and when that happened, James had an important part to play. He couldn’t afford to be distracted.


	2. Chapter 2

_**”Night will fall and drown the sun when a good man goes to war.”** _

_Back on Earth_  
 _September 2012_  
 _SHIELD Headquarters ~ Avengers Training Center_

The Avengers were suiting up for battle, and River couldn’t help but feel a swell of appreciation for her new teammates. Steve, Tony, Thor, and Bruce--not a one of them had hesitated when they’d heard Rory’s story. There had been no discussion or debate, just a unified response of _Yes, of course. We’ll help._

They were doomed to failure, of course, but they were going to try. Rory would be able to go into this fight with the full force of the Avengers (save one) behind him. It made what River had to do now a little easier.

River, Clint, and Phil had had their Demons Run Strategy planned out for over two years. They had sat down and hashed it out not long after they’d returned from their adventure with the Weeping Angels on the crashed starliner _Byzantium._ It was the point at which they realized that the Doctor, Amy, and Rory had truly become their friends.

This had presented a conundrum. As Amy and Rory’s friends, there was a good chance that they would be called upon to help when Demons Run came to pass. This was somewhat problematic for River, due to a number of headache-inducing reasons involving temporal physics. The short-and-simple version was that River couldn’t go to Demons Run because she was already there.

Now she had to tell Rory that she couldn’t help him.

“You’re our last stop,” Rory said as River ushered him out into the corridor _for a quick word._ Phil and Clint followed along behind them. “We just picked up Vastra and Jenny. You remember them? London, 1885? The Great Fog?” 

“How could we forget?” Phil replied. 

“It sounds like you have a great team,” River said. _Get on with it, Song. Straight ahead is best._ “Rory. . .I can’t go with you on this one.”

That brought Rory up short. “What? Why?” He looked River up and down as if he expected to see a heretofore unnoticed cast or amputated limb. “Has something happened? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” River said. “I just can’t go on this mission with you.”

“And I’m afraid that the reasons for that are classified,” Phil added. “At the highest level. We’d tell you why if it were at all possible.”

“But the rest of us can go,” Clint said. “We’ll have plenty of firepower on our side.”

“Yes. Of course.” Rory was clearly confused, but mollified. River breathed an internal sight of relief. She had been prepared for that to go rather badly.

Clint steered Rory back toward the Avenger’s private armory, but at the door Rory balked, turning back to River.

“Do you know something?” he asked.

_Oh, hell._ “I’m sorry?”

Rory stepped toward River, ignoring Clint’s attempt to shepherd him back toward the door. He had the look of a man who had just had a stroke of grim inspiration. 

“You know things about the Doctor’s future,” Rory said. A note of steeliness had crept into his eyes and voice. “Do you know something about this? Is that why you won’t go to Demons Run?”

River was a spy. She was trained to be good at deception. She had innumerable mental weapons in her arsenal for the sole purpose of masking truth. River summoned up every last one of them now, looked Rory squarely in the eyes, and lied to his face.

“No, Rory.” River shook her head. “I don’t know anything about this. If I did, I would tell you.”

Clint and Phil kept quiet, for which River was grateful. It was much easier to maintain a lie if only one person did the talking, and she didn’t want Phil and Clint to have to lie to Rory any more than was necessary. This was River’s show, and she was prepared to bear the brunt of the fall out.

In a blink the steel was gone, and Rory just looked slightly chagrinned. “Right. Yes, of course you would. I’m sorry, River.”

*****

Phil knew that he had the unfair advantage of knowing that Rory Williams and Amy Pond were River’s parents. But sometimes, like now, watching River and Rory together, he really didn’t know how people couldn’t just _look_ at the two of them and tell that they were father and daughter.

This time Rory let Clint lead him back into the armory. Phil remained in the hallway with River. As soon as Rory was out of sight her shoulders slumped.

“He’s never going to forgive me for that, is he?” she said. 

“He will.” Phil rested a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe not right away, but once he’s processed it and understands, he will.”

River looked at him with a forced half-smile. “Yeah.” She took a deep breath and straightened up again. “Steve won’t be happy about me sitting this one out without giving a reason. He’ll have questions. Annoying ones, probably.”

“Let me deal with Steve,” Phil said. River raised a questioning eyebrow at him. “I’m the Avengers’ handler. It’s my job. I’ll run the interference. If he tries to corner you about it, refer him to me.”

River’s smile was much easier this time. “Thanks, Phil.”

“I just wish I could take more than one worry off your plate.” 

Phil knew that River had been simultaneously looking forward to and dreading Demons Run. She wanted to be able to level with Amy and Rory, to let them know who they were to her. At the same time Phil knew she was under no illusions that the fallout from this was going to be easy.

“You and Clint just watch each other’s backs. Come back safe.” River suddenly smiled. “If things get rough, throw Tony to the Silence.”

Phil chuckled. “Because he’ll have them confused and demoralized within fifteen minutes?”

“I was thinking five. But, yeah, basically.”

“Duly noted. And don’t worry, River. We’ll be careful.”

*****

River came down to the boiler room to see them off. She and Clint took a private moment at the far end of the room, out of earshot of the others, while Phil gathered the rest of the Avengers for a quick pre-mission talk.

“So, any final words of advice?” Clint asked.

“I wish I had some,” River replied, unnecessarily fiddling with the fastenings of this tactical vest. “I don’t know what’s going to happen at Demons Run. All I know is how it ends. Amy and Rory don’t leave there with their baby.”

Clint nodded. He knew that the Silence and the Academy had raised River on the fairy tale that the Doctor had forced Amy and Rory to abandon her on a deserted asteroid as an infant, at which point the Academy had swept in and saved her. Once she’d found out that was a lie, she’d broken away from the Academy and never looked back. She hadn’t exactly been able to hit anyone up for details about the true story.

“Promise me you’ll be careful,” River added, looking up at him. Her eyes, usually amber-brown, were dark with worry. “There’s going to be a lot of volatility concentrated in one place. Anything could happen.”

Clint pulled her in for a hug. “I will. I’m always careful.”

Okay. Maybe that was a _slight_ exaggeration. Clint had racked up any number of injuries over the years that Phil had heavily hinted might have been avoidable. But it wasn’t like he was setting out to get hurt or killed, especially now. Like River’d said, this was no situation to take chances in.

“I know you will.” River cinched her arms around his waist. “I just hate it when I can’t watch your back.”

“Yeah, me too. But I’ll have Phil. Not to mention Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk.” Clint grinned down at her. “Granted, they’re not _you,_ but they’re not bad as far as back-up goes.”

That did at least get a small smile out of River and a nod of agreement. Clint and River were both feeling a lot more confident in their new teammates. Clint trusted them to watch his back, and so did River.

*****

River watched the TARDIS flare and fade out of sight. Even over the loud, pulsing wheeze she could hear soft footsteps coming up behind her, but she didn’t turn. River knew those footsteps.

“So.” Fury stepped up alongside her. “That’s it then.”

A smile tugged up the corners of River’s mouth. Fury sounded brusquely matter of fact, as was his usual way. River was glad. She didn’t think she could handle sympathy or solicitousness at the moment. 

“That’s it,” she replied. “Nothing to do now but wait.”

“Any idea for how long?”

“No,” River said. “It could be minutes. It could be hours.”

It would probably be the same day. The Doctor had always been pretty good about returning them to a time close to their departure point. Phil insisted. 

“Well, then. We should head up to my office.”

River raised an eyebrow, but she followed Fury out of the boiler room and toward the elevators. “What’s in your office?”

“A tea kettle and a liquor cabinet. Your choice.”

That did rather cover all of the bases, didn’t it?

“Tea kettle,” River said. “The liquor cabinet might come in handy later once Mum and Dad get home and I finally have to face the music.”

*****

Steve brought up the rear when the Avengers filed into the TARDIS, still smarting slightly from the “conversation” he’d just had with Coulson. His handler had. . .how would Trip put it? _Laid a smack down,_ that was it. A short, polite, even-handed, and uncompromising smack down. Coulson had made it very clear that Song’s absence from this mission was not up for debate and the reasons for that were above Steve’s paygrade.

The sting fell away at the sight of the TARDIS’s main control room. Steve had been in it before, but it hadn’t looked like this. The Doctor’s army was gathered here, and Steve had to concentrate hard to keep from staring.

Almost as soon as they stepped on board, Coulson and Clint were approached by a tall woman with scaly green skin and dramatic head ridges. She wore a tailored Victorian blouse and skirt, and had a sword strapped to her back.

“Clint. Phil,” she said in a surprisingly refined English accent (not that Steve had any idea what a green lizard woman _should_ sound like). “What a pleasant surprise. Clint, will you be providing cover for us on this endeavor?”

“Hey, Vastra. Good to see you,” Clint replied, shaking the woman’s hand. “That’s my guess, but we don’t actually know what the plan is yet. Hi, Jenny,” he added to a dark-haired human woman, similarly attired, who’d followed Vastra over. 

Phil waved the other Avengers forward with a smile. “Guys, this is Madame Vastra and her wife, Jenny. Vastra and Jenny, this is Steve, Tony, Thor, and Bruce.”

Steve was curious as to what kind of alien Madame Vastra was, but it turned out that she wasn’t one at all. Her species was native to Earth, predating humanity by a good long while.

“Man,” Tony said aside to Steve while Vastra and Jenny were busy talking to Clint and Coulson. “This officially puts spring break in Ibiza during my junior year of college completely to shame.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Stark, this is really not the time.” Not that he knew for certain that Tony was being borderline inappropriate, but it was Tony. The odds were high.

Tony just rolled his eyes right back at him. “Rogers, we are about to go up against a creepy, baby-napping theocracy, and we are riding into battle alongside a lesbian dinosaur woman from the dawn of time. Do me a solid and just appreciate this moment, okay?”

_Appreciation_ seemed to be a tall order. Steve was still trying to get his bearings.

He found himself confronted by short, stocky, bald being with prominent ears and no discernable neck. “Human scum!” he (he?) said, slapping a fist to his chest in salute. “I am Strax. I look forward to crushing the life from our foes with you.”

“Uh. Thanks,” Steve replied. “Same to you.”

Strax nodded in apparent satisfaction and moved on. Looking around, Steve saw a handful of other people that were clearly the same species as Strax, as well as a squad of soldiers who looked like Madame Vastra. His eyelid twitched when the spotted a platoon of Judoon, but they seemed to be behaving themselves and, clearly, they were here at the Doctor’s invitation. There was also a large man with bright blue skin and a band of what appeared to be honest-to-God pirates. Steve assumed they were human; they looked like they’d fallen straight out of Stevenson novel.

The various groups stood in knots talking, but they went silent when the Doctor walked down the steps from the control platform, followed by Rory. Steve suddenly got why one of the Doctor’s nicknames was “The Oncoming Storm.” The man gave off an aura of danger that made the hair on the back of Steve’s neck stand up like an electric charge in the air.

“Gather ‘round, everyone,” the Doctor said. “It’s time to go over the plan.”

It was simultaneously the strangest mission briefing Steve had ever attended and almost absurdly routine. The Doctor even had a projector and holographic plans of the Demons Run base. The blue man, Dorium Maldovar, was apparently to thank for the plans. He had also supplied information on and pictures of some of the key players: Madame Kovarian, the leader of the Silence. Dr. Weatherby, the head of their research division. Col. Manton, the commander of the Academy’s military forces. There were also a few off-center shots of the Silence’s newest allies, the Headless Monks.

Steve leaned over to Clint at one point. “I thought you said the Doctor wasn’t big on plans,” he said quietly.

Most of what Steve knew about the Doctor came from listening to Clint and River’s stories. And God could they tell some stories. A lot of them involved the Doctor strolling in where angels feared to tread, making himself at home, asking for tea, and _then_ figuring out how he was going to save the day.

“He’s not,” Clint whispered back. “Except for when he is.” He grinned. “Actually, you can take that statement and apply it to pretty much anything when it comes to the Doctor.”

“That’s not exactly reassuring,” Steve replied.

Still, Agent Coulson had said to trust the Doctor. The Doctor’s plan was ambitious and Steve wondered, realistically, what their odds were of pulling it off, but Clint and Coulson didn’t seem worried. Steve remembered something else about the Doctor from the stories Clint and River had told: This was the man who had brought an end to the single greatest war the Universe had ever seen.

Steve could follow someone like that.

“Are there any questions?” the Doctor asked. He turned a slow full circle, looking around at the assembly. No one spoke up. “Good. We move in two hours.”

*****

_52nd Century_  
 _Asteroid Outpost 3127.9 aka Demons Run_

Amy had fallen into an exhausted sleep. 

This was her pattern. James had had ample opportunity to observe it over the past weeks. Amy would stay awake as long as possible, on guard, monitoring her surroundings, and keeping her child close. Sheer determination had its limits though, even for Amelia Pond. Eventually her body simply shut itself down. 

Amy’s bunk was too narrow for her tuck the baby in with her. Instead she had pulled the clear-sided plastic cot as close to her bed as she could, and lay with one arm outstretched toward it. It was a sign of how tired she was that she hadn’t awoken, even though the baby had been fussing quietly for several minutes. 

The sound lured James out of his corner. 

Madame Kovarian had graciously allowed Amy to officially name her child. _Melody Pond_ was etched on the side of the cot along with the baby’s pertinent details. James walked silently up to the cot and peered down into it. He was curious, as were all the Academy soldiers, about this child who would grow up to save the Universe from the Doctor. 

Just now the infant was wriggling, kicking against the blanket that swaddled her. She was strong already; Madame Kovarian was very pleased by that. She stopped fussing as James moved into her line of sight, blinking up at him. James automatically reached out, but hesitated as he caught sight of his own metal hand. He extended his other hand instead, resting it lightly on the baby’s chest. She immediately grabbed his finger and James felt an unbidden smile tug at the corners of his mouth. 

Images swirled up in his mind’s eye. James closed his eyes, not sure whether he was trying to repress the images or focus in on them. He could see crowded brown brick buildings with lines of laundry strung across the alleys, between the apartment windows. He could see children playing on the steps and sidewalks outside the buildings, and the babies. . .the babies would be in black carriages, pushed along the sidewalk by their mothers. Sometimes the carriages would be parked on the landings outside of the apartments. They babies would sit up in them, watching everyone who came and went with wide-eyed interest. 

Those images, like the voice that periodically popped into his head, were bad. If he let them go on too long they’d lead to anxiety and unrest, leaving him unable to do his duty. James knew he should report to Dr. Weatherby for a reset. 

But maybe not just now. It could wait a while. 

“Get away from her!” 

James’s eyes snapped open to find Amy sitting on the edge of her bunk, looking panicked. 

The baby started to whimper and Amy launched herself off the bunk. “I said get away from her!” Amy planted both hands on James’s chest and shoved him backwards. James quickly backed away as Amy snatched the baby (who was crying in earnest now) out of her cot and retreated to her bunk. 

James thought about trying to explain that he hadn’t meant any harm, but he could imagine Madame Kovarian’s disapproving stare in response. It would be a show of weakness, and James suspected that Amy would be savvy enough to try to exploit it, maybe not now, but later. Instead he quietly retreated to his corner. 

Amy cuddled and shushed the baby until she calmed down and finally went to sleep. Amy herself remained awake, sitting up on her bunk, keeping one wrathful eye on James. She didn’t attempt to sleep again and the baby didn’t go back into the cot that night. Amy didn’t let go of the child until morning came and Madame Kovarian and Dr. Weatherby came to take her away again. 


	3. Chapter 3

_**Friendship dies and true love lies.** _

_**Night will fall and the dark will rise when a good man goes to war.** _

_Demons Run_  
 _The Upper Walkways_

Bruce trailed after Clint as they quietly made their way onto a catwalk overlooking the center of Demons Run. The Doctor’s plan had put them on “vantage point” duty. There might have been places where the Hulk’s sheer destructive force would be handier, but the Doctor was determined to take the base with the absolute minimum of violence. Bruce personally thought that this was a good approach, especially since there was a helpless infant mixed up in this. So, instead of letting the Other Guy out to rampage, Bruce watched Clint’s back instead.

A good bit of this base had been made by drills carving tunnels and rooms into the rock, but this area at the center of the asteroid itself was naturally hollow. Catwalks crisscrossed the giant cavern and there were enough free-standing buildings here to give the impression of a small town under a domed stone sky. 

Clint stopped in the middle of the catwalk, knelt down, and peered through the bars at the scene below. Bruce followed suit, grateful that he’d never managed to develop a fear of heights. There were above a large open space that seemed to pass for an assembly area. Clint likened it to a parade ground.

“Looks like they’re getting ready for their little pep rally,” Bruce said. Men and women in combat fatigues and monks in hooded robes milled around below. “Just like Dorium said.”

“All of the fish in one barrel.” Clint sounded very satisfied. He touched his earpiece. “Guys, we’re in position.”

The other teams quietly sounded off their status in response. Bruce and Clint were among the first to reach their designated position. The Doctor had landed the TARDIS (cloaked from detection by means that Bruce barely understood) in a deserted maintenance area in the upper levels of the base, and the teams had been slowly and carefully working their way downward. Steve, Rory, and the pirate crew were securing the shuttle bay. Coulson, Vastra, and Jenny were to take the main control room when the signal came. Tony and Thor had the farthest to go; they were responsible for taking out the communications array at the bottom of the base. The Beta Team, the squads of Silurian, Sontarans, and Judoon, were laying low, waiting for their signal.

And the Doctor? Well, he had an entrance planned.

“So, who are these guys again?” Bruce asked, nodding at the soldiers milling around below.

“The ones in the hoods are the Headless Monks,” Clint replied. “Like, literally headless, if you can believe that. The others are Anglican Marines. The ones who drank Madame Kovarian’s cult Kool-Aid anyway.”

“Anglican. Marine. Cult. Those are three words that just should not go together,” Bruce said.

Clint snorted. “Yeah, well. Welcome to the future.” His eyes were scanning the scene below, and suddenly he straightened up, alert. “I’ve got eyes on Amy.”

“Where?”

“There.” Clint nodded at the building to their left. “Second floor, the fourth window from the right.”

Bruce’s eyes weren’t as sharp as Hawkeye’s, but now that Clint had pointed Amy out Bruce wasn’t sure how he’d missed her. She was standing centered in the window, a tall figure in white scrubs, harsh light shining on her red hair. Clint quietly relayed Amy’s location to the rest of the team. Rory replied immediately.

“Is she all right?”

“As far as I can tell,” Clint said. 

“What about the baby?”

“I can’t see the baby from where I’m sitting. But look, man, I’m sure she can’t be far away.”

“Well spotted, Hawkeye,” the Doctor said quietly over the comm. “Keep one eye on her. It looks like we’ll be getting started soon.”

Down below, Bruce saw Colonel Manton take the stage, followed by six Headless Monks. The Doctor was right. It was go time.

*****

Phil never thought he'd live to see the day he turned double agent.

Granted, it wasn't SHIELD he'd turned on here. Steve Rogers would be outed as Hydra before either Phil or Clint ever betrayed SHIELD. But Phil and Clint had agreed to be a part of this mission for the express purpose of making sure that the desired outcome was not obtained. At best that meant passively not helping and just letting events play out as they needed to. At worst, they'd have to sabotage Rory and Amy's shot at getting their kid back.

That did make them double agents of a sort. It didn't sit easily on Phil's conscience, but this was the hand they’d been given. He’d dealt with an uneasy conscience before and was sure to do so again. The important thing was to watch out for River, and Phil would do that, just as he always watched out for her and Clint.

In the meantime, he’d play his part on this mission. Phil, Vastra, and Jenny were charged with taking the control room.

As they made their way stealthily up the corridor, they could hear Colonel Manton over the PA system, addressing the troops. 

_“He is not the devil. He is not a god. He is not a goblin or a phantom or a trickster. The Doctor is a living, breathing man, and as I look around this room I know one thing. We’re sure as hell going to fix that.”_

“Confident, isn’t he?” Phil said quietly.

Jenny made a noise of amused agreement. Vastra looked even less impressed than she usually did. “Arrogance. The most delicious of weaknesses. It makes defeating an enemy so much more fun.” Vastra drew her sword. “Shall we?”

Jenny drew her sword as well, and Phil screwed the silencer onto his sidearm. This needed to be a quiet take down. He nodded and Jenny stuck the magnetic lock-pick the Doctor had given them on the door of the control room.

It was almost disappointingly easy. The control room was manned by just two Anglican Marines who all but pissed themselves at the sight of Vastra. They probably would have cut and run if it weren’t for the blades that Vastra and Jenny were holding at their throats.

There was a speaker in the control room, and Colonel Manton was still going strong.

_“Some of you have wondered why we have allied ourselves with the Headless Monks. Perhaps you should have wondered why we call them Headless. It’s time you knew what these guys have sacrificed for faith.”_

“Now, dear,” Jenny said to the Marine she was covering. She adjusted her sword slightly so that the edge was another uncomfortable fraction of an inch closer to his jugular. “Which button controls the lights?”

The Marine pointed one shaky finger at a button on the far wall. Phil positioned himself beside it and waited for the Doctor’s signal.

_“As you all know, it is a Level One Heresy, punishable by death, to lower the hood of a Headless Monk. But on this one and only occasion, I can show you the truth. Because these guys can never be persuaded. They can never be afraid.”_

Over the PA, Phil could faintly hear the exclamations of the assembled Marines. He couldn’t blame them. The pictures the Doctor had shown them of the exposed Headless Monks had been disturbing enough. Phil was fine with not getting to see them live and in person.

_“And they can never be--”_

_“Surprised!”_ Phil could just imagine the gleeful triumph on the Doctor’s face. _“Ha, ha! Hello, everyone. Guess who?”_

*****

The Doctor always did know how to make a good entrance, and to Amy’s eyes he could only have been a more welcome sight if he were Rory. Well, Amy had no doubt that a little time would take care of that. The Doctor was at Demons Run, which meant Rory was, too.

This was it. Help was here. Everything was going to be all right.

Amy pressed her hands against the glass of the nursery window, watching the melee begin to unfold down below. The Anglican Marines looked like they didn’t know whether they should open fire or run for their lives. Amy barely even noticed her metal-armed guard leave the room.

The Doctor looked directly up at Amy’s window, and she saw him grin.

“Amelia Pond! Get your coat!”

With that the Doctor flipped the hood of his monk’s robe back up over his head, and all the lights went out.

*****

“Damn. They’re going for it,” Clint said.

The lights had stayed off for precisely eleven seconds, per the Doctor’s instructions. Long enough for the Time Lord, in his stolen robe, to slip into the crowd of Anglican Marines and Headless Monks. Now the Marines were pointing their guns at anything wearing a robe and the Monks were drawing their swords in response. It was a neat move, Clint had to admit. There was a chance that the two sides were going to slaughter each other without the Doctor’s army ever having to lift a finger.

That would be Plan B, though, not Plan A.

“Do you think Manton will be able to calm this down?” Bruce asked as they watched the commander trying to diffuse the standoff.

“The Doc seemed to think so.” Clint scanned the crowd, quickly picking out Kovarian as she hastened toward an exit, flanked by four Marines. “Okay, Kovarian’s on the move. I need to go. Are you good here?”

Bruce nodded. “Keep an eye on the situation. Relay anything that looks important. Got it. Go on.”

Clint ran along the catwalk until he could vault over the railing and onto the roof of the closest building. He veered left jumping from building to building until he spotted Kovarian and her entourage down below. Clint slowed his pace, kept low, and followed them into the bowels of Demons Run.

*****

When the Doctor bypassed the lock and opened the door of the control room, he was greeted with a gun to the face.

“You can’t _really_ have been expecting anyone else,” he said, albeit while raising his hands in surrender.

Phil Coulson smiled as he lowered his gun. “You can’t be too careful,” he replied. “Come on in. We were just checking on the other teams.”

The Doctor smiled a greeting at Vastra and Jenny, spared a jaunty wave for the two Marines bound and gagged in the corner, and flipped a switch on the main control panel. “Tony? Thor? Are you there?”

_“Yeah. We’ve reached their communications array,”_ Tony replied. _“Just say the word.”_

“Blow it.”

The Silence had a fleet patrolling the quadrant. Best not to let Manton get a distress signal off to them. No need to complicate things. Tony and Thor did their job with a bang if the faint rumbles the Doctor could feel through the soles of his boots were any indication.

_“Doctor?”_ Bruce’s voice came over the comm. _“It looks like Colonel Manton is getting things back under control up here. The Marines are laying down arms and so are the monks.”_

The Doctor pulled up the appropriate security feed to see for himself. “Excellent,” he said, watching the Marines disable their weapon packs. “Beta Team, take it away.”

*****

Bruce felt an uncharacteristic grin spread across his face as squads of Silurians, Sontarans, and yes, even Judoon transported into the assembly area, completely surrounding the now unarmed Anglican Marines and Headless Monks.

 _I could almost get into battles if they were all like this,_ he thought. Bruce tapped his comm. “Doctor, are you watching?”

“I am indeed, Bruce. I think you can come down out of the rafters now, if you’re so inclined. Any word from Clint?”

“Not yet. He took off after Kovarian. . .” Bruce checked his watch. “About four minutes ago.”

*****

_Son of a bitch_ Clint thought. _So that’s how they did it._

He’d shadowed Madame Kovarian and her small cohort of guards to an out-of-the-way convergence of corridors at the far edge of the central cavern. The Doctor had been sure that Kovarian would head straight for baby Melody/River when the chaos started, and he’d been right.

Truth be told, Clint had been getting kind of worried about this whole operation. He knew that the Silence were going to get away with the baby (see Exhibit A: River Song) but he hadn’t quite been able to see how. The Doctor had put together a hell of a force and a good plan. On paper, it _should_ succeed. So how the hell were the Silence going to get one over on him?

It looked like the answer to that question was _with a little help from Hawkeye._

Clint crouched on the edge of one of the buildings watching the scene that was playing out below him. Kovarian’s plan was so simple. There were two babies; the real Melody/River and a Flesh avatar.

The babies were in identical white pods, presided over by Dr. Weatherby, the Silence’s head of research.  
River had talked about Dr. Weatherby off and on over the years, always with a shudder of disgust. Clint could see why. Weatherby was a tall, painfully thin man with limbs that were a little too long. He was pale and bald and looked like Nosferatu’s creepier cousin. Just looking at the guy made Clint’s skin crawl.

Clint watched Madame Kovarian’s lips move as she gave her marching orders. Kovarian and her entourage were going to take the decoy baby to the main shuttle bay where they were certain to be intercepted. The real baby was being given over to a single soldier (a cyborg, judging by the metal arm) and taken to a small, auxiliary shuttle bay on the far side of the base.

_Take her and proceed to the rendezvous point. We’ll keep the invaders distracted while you get away. We’ll join you there once the Doctor has lectured us about the error of our ways,_ Kovarian said to the soldier with the metal arm. When he nodded, Kovarian turned to her guards. _When we’re caught, do put up a bit of a fight. Remember, the Doctor must think he’s winning, right up until the very end._

As the two groups split off, Clint activated his comm. “Guys, come in. I have eyes on Kovarian.” 

Rory replied immediately. “Does she have the baby?”

“Yeah, she does. She’s heading for the main shuttle bay with Dr. Weatherby and four armed Marines.”

“Acknowledged, Hawkeye,” Steve replied. “We’re in position. Keep on them, just in case they divert.”

“Roger.”

“And good work.”

“Yeah.”

Clint straightened up, but before he moved to follow Kovarian, he watched the soldier with the metal arm carry the pod containing the real baby off in the opposite direction. He watched until they turned a corner and vanished from sight. 

_See you on the flipside, River._

*****

Rory was adamant that he didn’t want to risk gunfire in the shuttle bay with his infant daughter in the mix, and Steve readily agreed. For his part, Steve wasn’t crazy about a potential game of hide-and-go-seek with Kovarian and her people. The shuttle bay was huge with dozens of crafts parked there, and even with the pirate crew their team would be spread thin. There was too much of a chance of something going wrong. Kovarian could give them the slip.

Time to resort to ambush tactics.

Madame Kovarian’s personal shuttle was easy enough to find. While Clint quietly kept them apprised of Kovarian’s approach, Steve, Rory, and three of the pirates hid inside. Steve took the main passenger bay, keeping out of sight until two Marines came in carrying a small white pod. 

Steve waited until they had safely anchored the pod to a pair of brackets along the wall before taking his shield to both men. (The Doctor wanted to avoid deaths on this mission if possible, but knock-outs were fair game.) After confirming that they’d be no further trouble, Steve popped the pod open. He grinned with relief at the sight of its contents.

“Well. Hi there, little girl.”

The infant inside the pod was safe and sound, blinking up at Steve with cloudy blue eyes. She looked like a small, startled starfish, her arms and legs jerking at this strange, large presence that had just appeared in her environment. She was still new enough to be red and wrinkled, and so tiny that Steve’s gloved hand spanned her entire chest. 

The forbidding frown she gave him was all Amy. Steve laughed and, after a moment of consideration, carefully picked her up.

Steve found Rory at the front of the shuttle. Dr. Weatherby was being manhandled by some of the pirates who had lain hidden in wait outside as back-up. Rory was holding the blade of his sword to Madame Kovarian’s throat while two more of the pirates and Barton looked on. Rory had always struck Steve as a steady, easy-going sort of guy. The cold hate in his eyes now was a little jarring.

Steve cleared his throat. “Centurion? I think there’s someone here who’d like to meet you.”

Rory looked up and, when he saw what Steve was holding, the hate immediately vanished. He lowered his sword and stepped away from Kovarian. The pirates came forward. “We’ll just take this one on up to the Doctor,” one of them said, taking Kovarian by the arm, but Rory didn’t seem to hear. All of his attention was focused on the bundle Steve was carrying.

“I’m no expert,” Steve said, handing the baby over, “but she seems just fine.”

“Yes, she does.” Rory’s voice had taken on the slightly crooning lilt that seemed to be the hallmark of brand new parents. The man had gone from _hardened warrior capable of killing in cold blood_ to _melting like an ice cream cone at Coney Island in July_ in the span of about two seconds. “She’s just fine. She’s absolutely perfect.” Beaming, Rory turned to Barton who had stepped into the shuttle as the pirates escorted Kovarian out. “Clint, did you see?”

Barton hung back with a slightly stiff smile. “Yeah, man. She’s beautiful,” he said.

Steve smothered a smile. _So, Barton’s apparently not a baby person._ Steve filed that away in his mental notes on his teammate.

“I need to take her to Amy,” Rory said. “She must be absolutely frantic.”

“Sure,” Steve said. “I’ll finish securing things here. Barton, you’ll walk him up?”

The base was still in the process of being secured. No sense in taking the risk of sending Rory and the baby on a walk through it without an escort.

“Yeah.” Barton clapped Rory on the shoulder and nodded toward the hatch. “Come on. Let’s get you guys back together.”

*****

The Doctor was a man with a lot of blood on his hands. Thor had known that even as a child.

The Doctor had been something like an honorary uncle to the two young princes of Asgard back in the day. His visits had been like surprise holidays, and Thor and Loki had always greeted them with unfettered exuberance, which seemed to genuinely delight the Time Lord. Loki had admired the Doctor for his knowledge and cleverness. Thor had looked up to him because, though the man didn’t look it, he was the fiercest known warrior in the Universe. Even Odin had once admitted that he’d never wish to incur the wrath of the Time Lord.

That was why Thor wasn’t surprised at how the Doctor chose to deal with the Silence, but he could tell that Tony and Bruce were confused.

The Doctor had had Madame Kovarian and Colonel Manton brought up to the control room. He addressed them while slouched casually in a chair, deceptively relaxed. 

“Colonel Manton, I want you to tell your men to run away,” the Doctor said.

Colonel Manton and Madame Kovarian both stared at the Doctor, seemingly baffled. “You what?” Manton said.

“Those words. _Run away,_ ” the Doctor repeated. “I want you to be famous for those exact words. I want people to call you Colonel Run Away. I want children laughing outside your door because they’ve found the house of Colonel Run Away.” 

The Doctor’s voice grew more and more clipped and coldly furious, and he sprang out of his chair, looming over the commander of the Silence’s army. Thor felt Bruce flinch. 

“And when people come to you and ask if trying to get to me through the people _I love_ is in any way a good idea, I want you to tell them your name.” The dark clouds broke a bit, and the Doctor looked almost amused at his own outburst. “Oh, look. I’m angry. That’s new. I’m really not sure what’s going to happen now.”

“The anger of a good man is not a problem,” Madame Kovarian said. Up until this point she had been silent, looking at the Doctor with disdain. “Good men have too many rules.”

“Good men don’t need rules,” the Doctor replied. “Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.”

Madame Kovarian matched his glare for a moment. Then somehow, without moving or changing expression, she gave the impression of backing down. “Give the order, Colonel Run Away.”

“So, what, he’s just letting them all go?” Tony asked. “Does that make any kind of sense to you?”

They’d moved down to the parade ground to watch the Silurian and Sontaran squadrons herd the Marines and Headless Monks into orderly lines and start marching them down to the shuttle bay. The Judoon were escorting Madame Kovarian and her inner circle. 

“What would you have him do?” Thor asked. “Kill them all?”

That would be a solution of sorts, but not one that the Doctor would ever choose. Because the Doctor was a man with a lot of blood on his hands, and he knew the weight of killing. Executing all the prisoners was not a solution he’d choose unless he had no other option.

“God, no.” Tony looked appalled. “I’m just saying it seems like an unnecessary risk.” 

“I kind of have to agree with Tony,” Bruce said. “These guys have backup out there somewhere. If we let them go, they’re just going to run right back to home base. Shouldn’t we leave them locked up? Or, I don’t know. Turn them over to some kind of authority?”

“We’ll all be long gone by the time they could return with reinforcements,” the Doctor said, appearing at Tony’s elbow, making the man start. The Doctor beamed and draped an arm over his shoulders. “We’ve got Amy and the baby. Mission accomplished for us. As soon as we finish snooping through their computer systems, we’ll be on our way.”

“And what are you snooping for?” Bruce asked.

“For anything that might be interesting.” The Doctor shrugged. “I’m a sucker for interesting information. Now, why don’t you three go help see Manton and Kovarian and their lot off. I seem to recall that there’s a very old and clunky supply ship down in the bay. The manifest says it was last used for food shipments. It’ll be a bit cramped and smell of fish, but I think it’ll be just the thing.”

Thor chuckled. “Insult to injury, Doctor?”

“I’m nearly a thousand years old. I get to be a bit petty on occasion.” The Doctor smiled. “Off with you gentlemen. Make sure they run away properly.”

*****

Clint pulled Phil quietly aside while Amy and Rory were distracted by their reunion and quickly told him about Kovarian’s little bait-and-switch. Phil allowed himself ten seconds of relief. The real Melody was gone. River was safe.

There was no time to talk further. Amy came over and greeted Phil and Clint with a huge smile, teary eyes, and hugs. And if Phil didn’t already feel like a piece of shit over this whole situation, that would have definitely tipped him over the edge. 

“It’s so good to see you two,” Amy said. Rory stood at her shoulder, cradling the baby (the _avatar_ baby) in his arms. Amy frowned slightly. “But River’s not with you?”

“She had to stay back at SHIELD,” Phil said. “It’s kind of a long story. We’ll fill you in later. She’d be here if she could. I’m sure she can’t wait to meet. . .?”

Thank God, new parents could be easily distracted.

“Oh. Melody.” Amy took the baby back from Rory, holding her in one arm while she fished an embroidered and beaded round of green silk out of the pocket of her scrubs. She carefully spread it out over the baby’s chest. “Melody Pond.”

Rory, who had been beaming with fatherly pride, suddenly looked confused. “Melody Pond? Not Melody Williams?”

Amy smiled fondly at her husband. “Melody Williams is a geography teacher. Melody Pond is a superhero.”

_You don’t fucking know the half of it,_ Phil thought. Clint started coughing.

Fortunately, the Doctor bounded in at that point, and Phil and Clint could withdraw a bit.

“So, I guess our metal-armed friend got away clean,” Phil said quietly.

“If he’d been caught with his cargo, we’d know about it,” Clint replied. “He got away, and with Melody being right _there,_ ” he nodded at Amy, Rory, and the Doctor, “no one’s looking anyway. River’s all right.”

“Thank God.” Phil rubbed the back of his neck. “The sooner we can go home and get all of this behind us, the better.”

Of course, that still meant getting over one more major hurdle, and it was a hurdle that was going to shatter Amy and Rory. As Phil watched the new family, he hoped they’d get just a little more time together, even if it was only an illusion.

*****

“Okay, people,” Tony said, coming out of the old supply ship (which actually did smell pretty fishy on the inside). “Just so you don’t get any ideas, I’ve put a lock on your long-range communications. It’ll time out in. . .well, that would be telling, but you won’t be able to contact your people in time to interfere with us. Questions?”

He was met with dead silence and sullen stares from the assembled Silence forces. Even the monks managed to look like they were sulking, and how people who literally didn’t have heads managed to do that was a mystery.

“Okay,” Tony said. “All aboard. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”

He went to join Steve as the Silurians supervised the boarding. “Cap, you’re frowning.”

“Am I?” Steve said, watching the Marines and Headless Monks file aboard the ship.

“And you’re standing very straight and your arms are folded. According to that _let’s learn to read each other’s tells_ body language workshop Coulson made us do, that means you’re tense about something.”

That workshop had actually been pretty interesting, even if it meant that the Avengers would never be able to play poker with each other.

Steve looked half-heartedly annoyed for a second, then sighed. “It’s just. . .do you feel like this whole mission was a little too easy?”

“Not really,” Tony replied. “We had the element of surprise, we had fighters from all over Time and Space, and the Doctor’s plan was fairly brilliant, which is not a compliment I dole out lightly. What, you think the Silence threw the fight? Why the hell would they do that?”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.” Steve visibly unclenched. “The Doctor took Demons Run without firing a single shot. Takes skill.”

They waited behind the airshield until the ship had lifted off and Strax, the Sontaran manning a control console, confirmed they were headed away from the base. Tony blew out a breath. “Okay, so I want a look at this kid we just rescued,” he said.

This time, Steve just looked amused. “You want to hold the baby?”

“Did I say anything about holding? No. I want to admire from a reasonable distance. Let’s go, Rogers. Time for the victory celebration.”

*****

Madame Vastra called the Doctor away from getting to know little Melody. Pond Junior. They’d been right in the middle of a very interesting conversation, too. It was a pity more people couldn’t speak baby, the Doctor thought. Infants really did have the most amazing insights.

“You’ve hacked their software then, Dorium?” the Doctor asked as he followed Vastra back into the control room.

“Well, I am the one who sold it to them,” Dorium replied, typing away at the main console.

“Very good. What have we learned?”

The Silence had gone to considerable trouble to draw him into a fight, kidnapping Amy and her child. If they were willing to go to that kind of trouble, they would no doubt try to strike again. 

Vastra and Dorium exchanged a look. A very significant look. A look that boded no good news. “What?” the Doctor asked.

“We’ve found some very. . .edifying information,” Vastra said. “But before we tell you, I have a question. A simple one. Is Melody human?”

“What?” The one-word question came out with a great deal more incredulity this time. “Of course she is. What are you talking about?”

“I fear I may not have understood the Silence’s full motives.” Dorium sounded chagrinned. “They took mother and child to draw you out, true. But they also seem to have had considerable interest in the child herself. They’ve been scanning and studying her since she was born. And I think they found what they were looking for.”

Dorium pressed a button, pulling up a hologram of a slowly-revolving double helix. The Doctor frowned at it.

“So? It’s human DNA.” He was a smidge rusty at reading genetic scans, but the Doctor knew human DNA when he saw it.

“Look closer,” Vastra said. 

The Doctor obligingly stepped closer, studying the hologram, and he began to see what Vastra and Dorium must have. Inconsistencies. Additions. Pieces of genetic material that should not be there.

“Human plus,” Vastra said. “Specifically, human plus Time Lord.”


	4. Chapter 4

_**Demons run, but count the cost. The battle’s won, but the child is lost.** _

James’s extraction had been completely clean. Madame Kovarian would be pleased.

His shuttle had been prepped for weeks, waiting in a hidden berth near the bottom of the asteroid. The vessel was small, but it was exceptionally fast and it had a top of the line cloaking device. James kept the shuttle at a low speed so as not to leave an energy trail as he piloted it away from Demons Run. He kept one eye on the sensor screens. He saw the supply ship launch from the base, flying off in the opposite direction, but that was it. There was no sign of pursuit.

He kept the other eye on his passenger.

She was sound asleep in her pod in the co-pilot’s seat beside him. Dr. Weatherby had put the baby down for a nap with a mild sedative, enough to ensure that she wouldn’t wake too soon and prematurely sever the psychic link to her avatar double. A muffled voice at the back of James’s mind had protested this treatment, but he ignored it. Dr. Weatherby wasn’t going to do anything to endanger the health or well-being of their savior.

All the same, he let his right hand rest on her tiny chest for the reassurance of feeling it rise and fall with her breath.

Once Demons Run vanished from sight, obscured by clouds of gas and dust, James dropped the cloak and opened a space tunnel, an accelerated route to the rendezvous point.

Time to deliver little Melody Pond to her destiny.

*****

_Human plus. Specifically, human plus Time Lord._

The Doctor watched Melody Pond’s DNA hologram slowly spin in the center of the control room. It wasn’t possible. It shouldn’t be possible.

And yet, the Doctor had heard almost those exact words just a few weeks ago, at a party at Stark Tower, of all places. 

_“That’s what the Judoon said that she was. Human and Time Lord. Clearly that implies. . .you didn’t know that part, did you?”_

Tony had been talking about River Song. River Song, the Doctor’s own personal puzzle. River Song, who had mysteriously excused herself from this mission. River Song, who he did not have time to worry about at the present moment. 

River Song was what she was, however she’d come to be. God alone knew where she had come from. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. God, Clint Barton, and Phil Coulson knew where she had come from. The Doctor, much to his chagrin, did not.

But he did know _exactly_ where Melody Pond had come from.

“This doesn’t make any sense. She’s Amy and Rory’s daughter. They’re completely human, which means Melody’s completely human.”

“Humans who run with a Time Lord,” Vastra said. “You think that might not have had some effect? You’ve told me about your people. They became what they did through prolonged exposure to the Time Vortex. The Untempered Schism.”

“Over billions of years,” the Doctor argued. “It didn’t just _happen._ ”

“So, how close is she?” Vastra asked. “Could she even regenerate?”

“No!” the Doctor replied automatically. His eyes strayed back to the DNA hologram. “I don’t think so.”

“You don’t sound sure,” Dorium said.

“Because I don’t understand how this happened.”

“Which leads me to ask, _when_ did it happen?” Madame Vastra huffed impatiently when the Doctor gave her a confused look. “When did this baby begin? Could she have been conceived on the TARDIS in flight, in the Vortex? Could that have changed her somehow?”

The Doctor opened his mouth to immediately deny it, but the _no, of course not, don’t be stupid_ refused to come out. Because he genuinely didn’t know. 

Such a thing had never happened before, but new things had to start somewhere.

Maybe something of that very sort had happened here at Demons Run.

*****

It turned out that men’s rooms in space looked just like men’s rooms everywhere else. Bruce found that oddly reassuring, that some of those little things would remain consistent across the centuries.

He finished washing up (same smelly pink soap) and left the room, pausing for a moment to orient himself. He’d had to wander a ways from the assembly ground where the others had gathered, and this place was a maze. But it was a secured maze, all of the enemy troops sent packing, so Bruce wasn’t worried about the relative isolation.

At least, he wasn’t until he turned a corner and found himself face to face with an armed Anglican Marine.

“Jesus!” Bruce’s vision went green for a second. He wasn’t sure how much of the Other Guy briefly surfaced, but when his vision cleared a second later, the Marine’s face had gone white and she had her hands in the air.

“No, please! I wasn’t going to hurt you. I’m surrendering,” she said. Her rifle dangled from her shoulder by a strap, and she hastily shrugged it off, laid it on the ground in front of Bruce, and backed away. “I’m sorry. I thought it might be safer to talk to just one of you first.”

“You thought—you’re supposed to be gone.” _Is that really the relevant point, Bruce?_ “What are you doing here?”

“I know,” the woman said. “I hid when the others left. I heard Colonel Manton and Madame Kovarian talking. I had to warn you.”

The Other Guy rumbled dangerously at the back of Bruce’s head.

“Warn us about what?”

*****

The Doctor paced restlessly back and forth across the control room, thinking furiously. He was missing something. It was like glimpsing a shadow out of the corner of your eye, or trying to solve an equation that had just one key integer missing. There was something, some golden bit of information that would make all of this make sense. The Doctor could feel that it was almost within his grasp, he just couldn’t quite reach it.

“Even if you could cook yourself a Time Lord, or a part Time Lord, why?” he said. “What for? Why would the Silence be so intent on getting her?”

He’d been talking to himself. It gave him a bit of a start when Dorium answered. “A weapon?”

The Doctor stopped pacing, turning to look a bit aghast at Dorium and Vastra.

“Why would a Time Lord be a weapon?”

“Why. . .?” Vastra actually laughed a little incredulously. “Well, they’ve seen _you._ ”

There was no argument the Doctor could make against that statement. How many catchy nicknames did he have across the Universe? The Oncoming Storm. The Predator. The Monster. The Darkness.

The Doctor clenched his fist. If the Silence had any notion that they could take an innocent child and turn her into something like him. . .well, it was probably just as well that Kovarian and her people were safely on their way out of the quadrant.

“And yet they gave her up so easily,” Dorium said. “Their once in a lifetime opportunity. Does that not bother anyone else?”

“Go downstairs and join the others,” the Doctor ordered. “Just. . .make sure everything’s safe. I need to think.”

*****

Vastra’s sense of foreboding was not in any way lessened when she rejoined the main party only to find that the quiet Dr. Banner had taken a prisoner on his way back from the lavatory. Vastra’s hand immediately went for her sword.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t disembowel you here and now,” she said, advancing on the young Marine.

Clint quickly moved to block her path, but it was Amy’s voice that made Vastra stay her hand.

“No! It’s okay,” Amy said. “I sort of know this one. She’s not quite as evil as some of the others.”

“Besides, you might want to hear what she has to say before you kill her,” Dr. Banner added. He looked back at prisoner. “Pvt. Bucket? Go through it one more time?”

The Marine--Pvt. Bucket--took a deep breath. “I overheard Colonel Manton and Madame Kovarian talking a few days ago. They were talking about contingency plans. They expected the Doctor to attack, you see, and I think they weren’t sure they’d be able to hold the base against him. They were going to assign the Headless Monks to position themselves on the lowers levels and launch a second attack once the Doctor’s guard was down.”

“The Headless Monks are gone,” Captain Rogers said. “They were put on the supply ship along with your friends.”

“How many?” Bucket asked. “How many of them boarded the ship? I’m sure you must have counted.”

“Two dozen.”

“There were at least three times that number on this base,” Bucket said. “The others are still here somewhere.”

Dorium fished through the pockets of his voluminous robes. With a flourish and a triumphant smile, he held up a scanner. “Well?” Vastra asked. “Is she lying?”

Even as she asked, Vastra was taking note of their current assets. The Doctor had moved the TARDIS down herehe other Silurians, the Judoon, and the Sontarans (save the one called Strax) had retreated into it after the Silence’s forces had departed. They’d be easy to call if needed.

Dorium frowned as he fiddled with the scanner’s controls. “I’m not reading any life signs beyond those of us here, and the Doctor in the control room.”

“That’s because Headless Monks don’t read as alive,” Bucket insisted. “I’m telling you, this is a trap. It’s--” There was a loud _thump_ as the lights were cut. “It’s starting.”

*****

The control room was dark and silent. He had shut off the holographic display of Melody’s genetic code. The Doctor was alone in the quiet with his thoughts. It was never an especially comfortable place to be.

The Silence wanted Melody. She wasn’t just innocent, vulnerable bait they were using to set a trap for the Doctor. They wanted _her._ The Doctor gripped the edge of the console so hard the metal edge bit into his hands.

He raised his head as the view screen in front of him came to life and flashed with static. The distorted image cleared after only a second or two, and the Doctor found himself facing Madame Kovarian.

“I see you accessed our files,” Kovarian said. “Do you understand yet?” Her mouth pulled up in an unpleasant smile. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m a long way away. The child, then. What do you think?”

“What is she?” the Doctor asked. The time for playing games was long past.

“Hope,” Kovarian replied. “Hope in this endless, bitter war.”

“What war? Against who?”

“Against you, Doctor.”

*****

There was no mistaking the smell of battle in the air. Thor didn’t revel in it the same way he’d done in his more reckless days, but the calm resolve and focus was no doubt better.

The enemy had them surrounded, but so far they were hiding in the shadows at a distance. Thor could see the forms of the monks moving slowly through half-darkness and, here and there, the flicker of a flaming sword. They weren’t holding back out of caution or uncertainty, oh no. They were trying to sow fear.

Coulson was trying to raise the Doctor. He shook his head in frustration. “They’re jamming our comms,” he said.

“This way,” Rory said. He had Amy by the arm and was heading for the TARDIS. “There’s no way they’ll be able to get into--”

He broke off with a sharp yelp of pain and a curse as he bounced off of a milky forcefield that appeared around the TARDIS. The monks had somehow cut off their most convenient avenue of escape as well as their reinforcements.

“Okay. So, it looks like we’re doing this,” Barton said, opening his bow with a snap. Stark had already re-donned his suit, and the others were drawing their weapons as well. Someone had handed Pvt. Bucket’s gun back to her. Rory steered Amy toward a pile of crates, the only real cover in the vicinity.

“Don’t be so hasty. We won’t have to fight.” The round blue man, Dorium brushed passed Thor as he headed for the perimeter. “I’ve dealt with the Monks for years. They know me.”

“Yeah, and they know that you sold them out to the Doctor,” Barton called after him.

“Dorium, come back here!” Madame Vastra shouted.

But Dorium had already disappeared into the shadows. There was a long moment of silence, then a deceptively soft sound that Thor recognized as the sound of a sword biting into flesh.

Dorium Maldovar’s head came rolling out of the shadows. 

So much for the diplomatic approach.

“Okay, Bucket, where do we aim?” Barton said, raising his bow.

“Their hearts,” Pvt. Bucket replied.

“The child,” Madame Vastra said. “At all costs, protect the child.”

*****

The Doctor was not an angry person by nature, or so he liked to tell himself. But he also didn’t shy away from anger. Time Lords might manage their feelings a bit differently than shorter-lived species, but they most certainly experienced them. Centuries of repressed emotions benefitted no one.

“A child is not a weapon!”

Kovarian merely looked amused. “Oh, give us time. She can be. She will be.”

“Except you’ve already lost her,” the Doctor said, “and I swear I will never let you anywhere near her again.”

Even if he had to hide her at the end of the Universe. Even if he had to wipe every member of the Silence out of existence.

“Oh, Doctor.” Kovarian smiled. “Fooling you once was a joy. But fooling you twice the same way? It’s a privilege.”

Just like that, the shadow that had been hovering at the corner of his vision came into focus. The equation balanced. And the Doctor _knew._

The baby. She wasn’t real.

He could hear Madame Kovarian laughing as he ran from the control room. Well, of course she would. No matter how fast he ran, he was already far too late.

*****

The battle wasn’t the worst one that Rory had ever taken part it, but it was the one with the highest stakes.

Still, it didn’t take long at all for the tide to turn in in their favor. The Monks might outnumber them three to one, but quality (and sheer firepower) won out over quantity in this instance. Rory felt a mingled wave of relief and victory as the last wave of Headless Monks fell.

That was when Amy started screaming.

Rory was by her side in seconds. Amy was shaking, clutching the flannel blanket, and staring at a small puddle of liquid Flesh.

Melody was gone.

Melody had never been with them at all.

*****

The air smelt of blood and ozone. Dorium and a young female Marine lay dead, along with dozens Headless Monks. Amy was crying, her face hidden against Rory’s chest. Rory had his arms around her, looking like he was very quietly going into shock.

They all looked like that, even Madame Vastra and Tony Stark (the ones that the Doctor would peg as being least prone to that particular condition). All of them except two: Clint Barton and Phil Coulson. They looked grim, even grieved, but not shocked. Well, of course they wouldn’t, would they? 

The Silence had gotten away with the baby, and that knowledge had knocked all the off-kilter puzzle pieces into place. The Doctor quietly confirmed it by picking up the green prayer leaf, lying discarded on the floor, and reading Melody Pond’s name in the language of the people of the Gamma Forest.

_Well, of course. The only water in the Forest is the river._ But time to deal with all of that later.

The Doctor tucked the prayer leaf into his pocket and knelt down in front of Amy and Rory, blocking Amy’s view of what was left of her daughter’s avatar. He wrapped his hands over hers. “Amy?”

“It was all for nothing,” Amy said. “They took her anyway.”

Jenny appeared at the Doctor’s side, carrying a glass of what might be water or might be something considerably stronger. “Here, let me,” she said.

The Doctor moved aside for Jenny, migrating a few yards away where Vastra, Steve, Tony, Bruce, and Thor were standing in a clump.

“Doctor, I’m sorry.” Steve looked genuinely stricken. “We never even considered that they might have pulled a switch.”

“Nor I,” the Doctor said.

“So, what now?” Vastra asked. “Do we go after them? They’d almost certainly take the child to Earth. Raise her in the correct environment.”

“Yes, they did.” The Doctor knew that the Silence had done exactly that, and he knew what had become of little Melody Pond. “And it’s already too late.”

River Song. It all finally made sense. 

“Get everyone aboard the TARDIS,” the Doctor told his assembled troops. “We need to go.”

“Go where?” Thor asked.

“Back to SHIELD.”

*****

_September 2012_  
 _SHIELD Headquarters_  
 _Back Where We Began_

“You two look like hell,” River said, wrapping her arms first around Clint and then around Phil.

“Yeah.” Clint shrugged off his quiver, leaning it against the wall. “Feel kind of like it, too.”

“But it’s done,” Phil added. “Mission accomplished.”

They were standing in the doorway of Fury’s office, out of earshot of the other Avengers. The rest of the team had, as if it were a coordinated maneuver, collapsed onto the sofas and chairs on the waiting area. River caught only a brief glimpse of Amy and Rory as they were escorted to the elevators by Agent Washington.

The Doctor was hanging back, leaning against the door of the TARDIS. River tried to ignore the way he was staring at her. She was relieved when Fury came to join her, Clint, and Phil. 

“I asked Washington to escort Rory and Amy to Medical,” Fury said quietly. “Amy should be checked over, and it probably wouldn’t hurt for Rory to be seen, too. We paged Dr. Levine. She’s probably the best equipped to deal with this particular situation.”

“Thank you, sir,” River said. 

He was right. After spending months as a hostage, going through childbirth, and now the emotional shock of losing her child, Amy would need medical attention. River was grateful that Fury had thought of it.

She was also selfishly grateful that she could put off the talk she knew she needed to have with them a little while longer.

River glanced back toward the Doctor. He was still leaning against the door of the TARDIS, still looking inscrutable. When River caught his eye, though, it seemed to act as some sort of silent signal. The Doctor pushed off the door, striding briskly through the waiting area, drawing curious stares from the other Avengers. He walked up to River, seeming not to notice Fury, Clint, and Phil at all.

“Doctor,” River said cautiously.

He stared down at her like he was searching for something. It was highly uncomfortable, but River held his gaze, refusing to look away. She wondered if he’d worked it out yet.

As if he’d read her thoughts, the Doctor smiled. It was quick and didn’t reach his eyes.

“It’s good to see you again, Melody Pond.”

*****

**Epilogue**

_52nd Century_

James guided his shuttle out of the space tunnel and into orbit over Earth. 

The night-side of the planet was scattered with lights marking towns and cities. James could easily pick out London as he passed over Great Britain. As he flew north, the urban lights gave way to the darkness of the countryside. There were fewer people living on Earth than there used to be; Madame Kovarian had told him that once. Earth had once been very, very crowded, so crowded that the life had nearly been choked out of it. But when human beings had achieved spaceflight, they’d started to migrate outward. There was more elbow room on Earth in the 52nd Century.

James followed the coordinates into Scotland, heading for the rendezvous point on the western coast. His passenger was awake now, lying quietly in her pod, determinedly sucking on the middle two fingers of her left hand. James smiled.

The rendezvous point was just outside of Oban, the little seaside town Madame Kovarian had chosen for Melody to grow up in. James landed alongside the deserted road where another shuttle was already parked. The others were already here. James powered down his shuttle and gently lifted the baby out of her pod.

Madame Kovarian and Dr. Weatherby were waiting along with three other individuals. One was a woman with red-gold hair, wearing the uniform of an Anglican Marine. The other two—a tall, broad-shouldered man and a pretty woman with blonde hair—were dressed in very old-fashioned clothing. _Suitable to Earth of the 1930s_ , James thought, and pushed down the nagging sense of familiarity the clothing evoked. This would be Robert and Elizabeth MacDonald, the couple who been handpicked to be Melody’s foster parents, to raise her and prepare her for her destiny.

Elizabeth MacDonald came forward smiling to meet James. She looked down at the baby in his arms. “This is her.” It wasn’t a question. She looked up as James nodded and extended her arms. “May I?”

James obligingly handed the baby over. He watched the MacDonalds cuddle and coo over and talk to the Melody—all the same things that Amy had done. Robert looked up at the Marine. “Flora, come meet your niece,” he said. 

“Is this really necessary?” Dr. Weatherby asked. “Sentimental good-byes?”

James, Dr. Weatherby, and Madame Kovarian were standing a short distance away, watching. Madame Kovarian shrugged.

“Robert’s only request was that his sister be allowed to see them off. They’re very close, and her security clearance will likely never be high enough for temporal visitation. This is probably the last time they’ll see each other.” Madame Kovarian gave Weatherby a withering look. “If we indulge in heartlessness for its own sake, we’re no better than what we fight against. Remember that.”

After several minutes, though, Madame Kovarian did nudge things along.

“Everything you need is in the bags,” she told Robert and Elizabeth, nodding at the waiting suitcases. “Money, papers, communications devices, and the like. The house has already been let and supplies have been stocked. The advance team put your trunks and furnishings on the train in Glasgow and the landlord was instructed to have them all taken up to the house. They’ll be waiting for you. If anyone enquires about your personal travel, you caught a lift from an acquaintance with a car who dropped you outside of town because it’s such a lovely evening you wanted to walk.”

“You’ll be seeing us at regular intervals,” Dr. Weatherby said. “We’ll want to monitor the child’s progress, make sure she’s growing well and the like. And I’ll personally oversee her health. The medical care where you’re going is one step up from the Dark Ages.”

“You’ll arrive on Sunday the 17th of July,1932 at 4:08 PM. Just in time for tea,” Madame Kovarian added. “Robert, your job at the newspaper office starts on Monday next. Your references, I must say, are glowing.”

The MacDonalds nodded in understanding. “Thank you, ma’am, for this opportunity,” Robert MacDonald said. “We won’t let you down.”

“I know you won’t,” Kovarian said. “Our little Melody couldn’t be in better hands. In the event of an emergency, you have the means to call us, but only do so if it’s absolutely necessary. A transmission across Time and Space will stand out like a beacon where you’re going.”

“Of course,” Elizabeth said. “Don’t worry, ma’am. We know our briefing packets backward and forward. We’re ready.”

“In that case, it’s time.”

The Vortex Manipulator, a device roughly the size of a shoebox, was already set up on the edge of the road. Kovarian tapped a few buttons on the control device on her wrist, and a portal opened in the darkness. Through it, James could see a sunny, rural roadway with green grass and trees on either side. He could hear birds and, for a moment, even thought he felt a summer breeze. 

Robert gave his sister one final embrace before he picked up the suitcases and followed Elizabeth through the portal back in Time. The portal stayed open long enough for James to see them start down the road before it shrank down to a pinpoint and disappeared.

The mission had been accomplished.

Robert MacDonald’s sister quickly retreated to the shuttle, head down, wiping her eyes.

“Well, that’s done,” Kovarian said. She looked over at James and smiled. “Don’t look so sad, James. You’ll see the child again. She’ll need to learn how to fight. You’ll be rather a good teacher, I think.”

James hadn’t been aware that he looked sad. He didn’t think he looked much of anything. It was possible that Madame Kovarian was teasing him. She did that from time to time. He didn’t really mind.

And it would be good to see Melody Pond again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tune in again soon for messy emotional fallout in _The Only Water In The Forest._ Thank you for reading!


End file.
